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Kitty Hawk's 1/48th Scale Su-22M-3 & M-4


sharkmouth

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 minutes ago, eng said:

Any more updates on availability of this one? Having seen Mikes review, I'm getting impatient ;)

 

Eng

 

Ive been keeping an eye on eBay, but nothing's coming up other than a German retailer, the expected delivery date if ordering from them is sometime mid March so there obviously awaiting the arrival of their stock. With that in mind it's looking like March before it hits the shelves of Europe! 

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After looking at the sprue pics, I'm a little puzzled at why Kitty Hawk seems to continue to make kits that are potentially difficult to build. For example, the fuselage is made up of numerous pieces. This could lead to poor fit. I have their Mirage F1 kit. It is similar in design. With all the complaints with the poor fit of Kitty Hawk kits, you think they would engineer their kits to compete with the modern kit market, especially since their kits go for a Tamiya/ Eduard, etc. price. Many of the kits I have built lately, such as AMK Mig-31, AFV F-5, Eduard Mig-21, do not have the numerous part fuselages and poor design like these. They have generally two to three part fuselages  and minimal seam lines to fill when built. 

 

 

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Well...

 

The aft fuselage is separate so they can do the re-engined Su-22.

The mid fuselage is separate so they can do the straight fuselaged M.

The forward fuselage is separate so they can do the two-seater or M.

The aft spine is separate so they can do the M3 or M4.

The front spine is separate so they can do the two-seater. 

The tail is separate so they can do the re-engined Su-22.

 

You can see where the alternate parts will go; there are big, empty sections in the tooling that have been gated off:

 

10436380n3.jpg

 

I agree, it's not a great way to do it, but they did it this way to save money.  Instead of tooling an entirely new fuselage, they just do a few sections then mix and match to get a different version.  It's something that Hasegawa were kind of notorious for doing 20 - 30 years ago (just look at their 1/72 Phantoms).

 

 

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On 2/4/2017 at 08:56, ICMF said:

You can see where the alternate parts will go; there are big, empty sections in the tooling that have been gated off:

 

 

 The empty areas around the mid and rear sections are probably clearance for the multi-part mold to impress details.  The fact the the outer edges do not have sprue tree gates and the inner gates trees are half round bear this out.  II'll know for sure when I get my kit.

 

I'd love for Kitty Hawk to release many variants.

 

Regards,

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22 minutes ago, Laurent said:

Su-22M/M3 boxing please !

yeah!

 

and, as we are at it, a Su-22 one as well ;)

 

and of course a Su-20 :)

 

... so many variants and interesting operators!

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The retail in the US is $99 dollars.  Probably will find it for a little cheaper on the shelves.  I paid $130 for the HB Su-34 and am really happy with that kit that retailed for $166.  Like most of the manufacturers, KH is hit-or-miss when it comes to buildability (I don't care about rivet counting) so to me it will be nice to have a modern kit of this jet.  

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Happy, having paid $130 for a kit, that also has serious issues (e.g. nose)?

Would have been happy, if it was in the range of $50 to $80 max!

Sorry for I cannot share your feelings.

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On 04/02/2017 at 7:30 PM, sharkmouth said:

 The empty areas around the mid and rear sections are probably clearance for the multi-part mold to impress details.  The fact the the outer edges do not have sprue tree gates and the inner gates trees are half round bear this out.  II'll know for sure when I get my kit.

 

I'd love for Kitty Hawk to release many variants.

 

Regards,

 

That is correct. The spaces are there because they used a slide mold to ensure that there would be good detail all around the fuselage tubes. One down side is that there are mold seams around the tubes. But thankfully they are very fine and easy to remove with a bit of sanding.

 

Mark

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